Police also poured hundreds of reinforcements into Alutgama, 60km south of Colombo, after the two groups attacked each other with stones.

A police spokesman said trouble began when a group led by Buddhist monks tried to march in an area where there is a concentration of Muslims, who are a minority in the mainly Buddhist country.

“The curfew was declared to bring the situation under control,” a police officer in the area told reporters. There were no immediate reports of arrests.

Many activists from both sides as well as bystanders were injured during the evening clashes, according to witnesses who also reported seeing several vehicles smashed.

Dhaka accuses 17 over garment factory collapse

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday filed a case with local police accusing 17 people of breaching regulations over the construction of a building that collapsed last year, killing over 1,130 mostly garment workers.

The April 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza, built on swampy ground outside Dhaka, ranks amongst the world’s worst industrial accidents and sparked a global outcry for improved safety standards in the world’s second-largest exporter of ready-made garments.

The accused include the parents of Mohammad Sohel Rana — the individual previously cited as the owner of Rana Plaza - as well as a local mayor, engineers and three owners of garment factories that used the building.